Comment by nevi-me | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nevi-me | Hacker News Reader

> I knew my concrete home would be a big challenge if I didn't deploy multiple APs to every floor or room. Concrete walls cut out Wi-Fi signals more than dry walls.

We're building a house, moving from an apartment. I ensured that we get a fiber line to each room, and 2 to open spaces where I might want to extend wifi networks. Then CAT 6 cables to where cameras will be. I have a Nest wifi with 2 router extensions and a wireless one, so I've prioritised where I'll place those (and their eventual replacements).

My setup will be simpler, because I'm not really building a home lab (I agree with other comments that this isn't really a homelab). I just want to move noisy devices like a NAS and switches to the garage. My home office has space for a long rack if I desire one, but I think I'm going to make it a hybrid glass-door display cabinet that also houses the desktop so I don't hear fan noises.

This is a good write-up still because it's giving me ideas of what I might need for networking.

Fibre to each room?! Nice, is that a common thing to do these days? I've been starting to plan wiring cat6 (or cat7 or whatever) around my place, but I didn't even know fibre is something people use throughout the home (I always thought of it as "you get fibre to the home and then ethernet within"). Interesting... I imagine there is quite the price difference though, among other differences. More to research I guess!

Fibre cables are not expensive, they are even cheaper than Cat6. Transceivers are a bit expensive, but got a lot cheaper than they used to be, still they are really cheap compared to other house build/remodel costs. The only issue is that you can't do power over fibre so it's inconvenient for putting wifi APs, cameras, and other powered devices.

I think it's a good idea, it's generally more price reasonable than 20 years ago.

Hell, there was probably a time where ethernet was too expensive to put into a house.

I just did that. Pulled single CAT6A along with a duplex single mode LC to each room, terminating at the wall port. On CAT6A I'm looking to attach now AP that preferably also has UTP ports (looking at something like U6 enterprise in-wall but ideally 10G) and fiber is there for future-proof non-POE needs. Ran CAT6A separately for camera ports as well. If you're running a cable like ethernet already, it adds practically nothing to also run fiber line along with it at the same time. Cable is cheap and you're pulling it already.

nice, that's awesome! I'm intimidated by the prospect of doing it but there's no reason I cant, just a matter of facing the challenge (and planning in detail). Are there any good guides/vids/etc. you followed or otherwise found useful? No worries if not, just figured I might as well ask!

There's nothing I followed. Basically, the house already had CAT5e in certain places through conduit, in others only conduit, etc. If there's a conduit, and if there's a any cable inside whatsoever (even electric) you can use the existing cable to pull on the new one - which I did for CAT6A (no reason to run anything else, but that's a different topic) and I also tied duplex LC UPC to it so both were pulled together. Sometimes there were either bends or whatever in the walls which lubricant solved. Only advice there is is to get a good electrician and either assist him doing that or have him do it. Single person cannot do it. Aftewards run tests on the cables. Tester you need are like 10-20 bucks each for UTP and for fiber (VFL). Terminate all to a a keystone onto a wall mounted plate and that's it. I have those plates that fit multiple things in it so it's a single plate with all connectors. My only "regret" is that all the conduits I have in house from various rooms all lead to a crawl space in attic. It's fine, and it's big enough to fit a small rack, but I'd prefer to have it all terminate to a basement for full rack and larger ventilation. I couldn't run everything from rooms to the attic and then through a single conduit to the basement, just no option to do that as such. I ran both UTP and fiber because UTP gives me POE and no need to wrangle transceivers.

Lol hell no it's not common. Cat6a to every room, it can do up to 10G or can be used for poe. Fiber used for links between buildings or as a link between redundant systems on separate power infrastructure (its like surge protection for your backhaul).

I don’t have it to each room personally, but I do have it to my garage, and between floors for connecting switches together. Oh and to servers.

Fibre is cheap and you can get it cut to whatever lengths, and it’s somewhat future proofed.

I have cat6 running to every room. Because most things need ethernet, wouldn't fibre just mean having switches throughout the house?

For example, I have some rooms with WiFi access points and things like scanners or Sonos speakers. Adding another PoE switch would be overkill.

I'd recommend cat6 that you can power if needed and fibre just where you think you'll need the speed.

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